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Post by Fateful on Nov 2, 2013 21:40:48 GMT -5
The Outcasts hadn’t succeeded. Not completely anyway. They had tamed a few dragons, but lacked respect for them. When the dragons followed their instincts, as they often did, the Outcasts drew outraged and in that rage often killed their trained dragons. There was no bond, no love between man and dragon. With time, the dragons grew fearful of the human who would earn their trust to kill them.
“We need the boy.” Some of the outcasts whispered.
The boy they spoke of, Hiccup, was no longer a boy. Years had passed and the boy had become a man. There was rumor from trader Johann that Hiccup was to celebrated his 18th year and officially become a man. The village celebrated and near cleared out the trader ship of all he had in terms of trade. The celebration would take place in five days’ time, or that’s what rumors drifted on the sea.
Alvin started to laugh after the trader had laughed. A loud, soul-shaking cackle. “Well then, it looks like we have some fortune. Berk will be distracted by the party, by their own weakness. We can get ourselves a dragon trainer.”
The men began to plan from there and that night, in the cloak of darkness, their ships set sail. - - -
It had been five years.
Hiccup had not been the only one who had come of age, but since he was the son of the chief, it was a bigger deal. There were few things that caused a party like this: a new chief, the end of a war, the marriage of a chief, or future chief, and the coming of age of the chief’s heir.
The twins were excited, but did their best to hide it. Ruffnut was braiding the right side of her hair, seated on her bed, looking out the window. “Hey?” She asked her brother who was sitting on the bed behind her. She glanced back, watching Tuffnut’s eyes narrow at her movements. He had learned to braid her hair because it made her happy. But, he wasn’t always good at it. For years one of her braids was longer than the other. That and when they were kids, Tuffnut once cut some of her hair and, after seeing how upset it made her, apologized and cut his own, on the opposite side. He did this “so they matched” as he’d told her to comfort her. Since, they were twins and everyone saw them as the same person anyway.
“Does it bother you…? That the party is this time of year?” It was the beginning of summer. During this same time of year, seven years before the twins lost their mother. She waited a moment. “It doesn’t bother me anymore… Not really.”
For the party, they were braiding her hair differently. It had been Tuffnut’s idea. He came up with a new way to braid her hair. They’d tried it he night before and she loved it. She’d smiled at him and it was enough to convey how she felt without her having to say it.
Even though they knew about this party for a few months and had even helped with the planning of it, it somehow felt like it was still a month away. It sounded foolish, but nothing ever went this smoothly on Berk, especially since they were having trouble with some of the other tribes while making alliances with others. In order to gain some allies, a few other highly ranked Vikings from the surrounding tribes were invited to partake in the festivities. There were other ships docked all around the island.
Their attire was expected to change for the celebration. At first, Ruffnut wasn’t going to do anything different, but Astrid made it clear that they both had to look beautiful, something about being women now, or some other feminine bullshit. Ruffnut complied, mostly because she didn’t feel like ensuing Astrid’s rage. Astrid was the most stubborn friend she had and if it made the other trainer happy, Ruffnut would go along with it, especially because Astrid was convinced Hiccup would be asking to marry her any day now.
Whatever. Ruffnut didn’t care and agreed to spend the morning bathing and “girl chatting” with Astrid. She obliged her friend, but was much happier fighting or hanging out with Tuffnut and Snotlout. Still, Astrid was her friend too. Astrid had never bothered Ruffnut before, not really. She was annoyed with how competitive she was, but other than that, Ruffnut had no rift with Astrid. Until she started dating Hiccup, that is. Then her friend fell into this pompous entitled premadonna. Hiccup isn’t the chief yet, and you’re not his wife, Ruffnut thought often whenever Astrid tried to exert too much force in the village.
Either way, Ruffnut convinced that Astrid that she needed to make sure Tuffnut was going to get ready and left not long ago. It wasn’t so much that Ruffnut wanted to be away from Astrid, just that she wanted to be with her brother more. Astrid liked to braid Ruffnuts hair her way, which Ruffnut didn’t like. And, Tuffnut had his own ideas on how to braid her hair today.
In agreement with her pact with Astrid, Ruffnut agreed to wear a dress. She was wearing pants under it, little did Astrid know, but a dress none the less. It was a navy blue, far darker than her eyes; the top of it was tight around her chest to allow her to wear leather armor over it. The armor was slightly ornate and had some metalwork worked into the leather. Not to mention, she managed to use some dragon scales to make it even more impressive. The dress was short sleeved, as it was warm, and her boots showed at the hem of it so it didn’t drag the ground. It wasn’t tight or loose around her legs, it simply flowed to fit her gracefully, but she could still fight in it, if she had to. And, she assumed there would be at least one drunken fight that evening, and she was honestly looking forward to it. Even if she had to start it.
The braces on her arms were still there, but it was different than the ones she normally wore, as it had dragon scales reinforced in the center of the fabric. One couldn’t see it, but it was amazing protection. She could block blades with her arms without risking injury.
“Tuffnut?” She asked, glancing over at her brother. “Do you think it’d be wrong to get Snotlout really drunk to see what happens? I bet he starts a fight.” She added with a mischievous grin. “Or we can see what Hiccup is like drunk?”
After they finished getting ready, Ruffnut walked downstairs to where BarfBelch were sleeping. Not many people knew this, but dragons actually slept a lot when they were allowed to. They could be rather lazy. The dragon had been excited earlier in the day, but as the two started getting ready, the dragon grew bored of waiting for their riders and settled down to sleep.
Ruffnut knew better than to wake the dragon when it was sleeping. By instinct, Barf would release gas and Belch would ignite it, as a means of protection. She went to the fire burning in the hearth and threw some lavender into it. The sweet smell in the flames whirled through their house and the dragon slowly woke. The twins, (and by the twins, it was actually Ruffnut) discovered that BarfBelch likes the smell of lavender. This was one of the few things that would wake the dragon, or put him to sleep when it was burned.
The dragon stood, walking over to Ruffnut and Tuffnut, their respective heads bending to push against their rider with affection. They’d long since given up speaking commands to their dragon. Unlike the others, Ruff and Tuff never had to utter a single command. They’d trained Barf and Belch to do everything by hand signs, something they often did as children in order to communicate without being spotted or needing to make noise. A strange thing about Barf and Belch was the fact that no matter who else gave these commands, even if it was the same command, the dragon refused to obey anyone except the twins. Even Hiccup couldn’t compel the dragon if the twins were there. And, even without the twins, Barf and Belch never truly obeyed another rider. They were stubborn and preferred to have the twins. If another tried to ride them, Barf would omit large gusts of gas in order to sicken whoever nerved to mount him.
The others didn’t have this problem. Hookfang hated to be ridden by anyone but Snotlout, and the same was true with Hiccup and Toothless, but they’d at least tolerate it. Bard and Belch wouldn’t unless it was absolutely necessary.
Once they’d greeted both heads, Ruffnut glanced to her brother. If they didn’t feed their dragon at the same time, the opposite head grew angry and would attempt to steal food from the other. Seeing Tuffnut nod, the female twin started to feed Barf fish while her brother fed the other.
The twins agreed it was a good idea to feed their dragon a snack before the party. There would be food for humans and dragons alike, but Barf and Belch grew angered around fish and would fight other dragons for it. Ruffnut said that because their dragon was imprisoned and used to train dragon killers, that they weren’t fed often, which made them aggressive. The twins accepted this as part of their dragon and had to make sure that they never got hungry enough to attack other dragons.
Once fed, Ruffnut pulled her brother by the prongs on his helmet. “Come on. We need to get going.” The party started at sundown and would continue well into the next day.
Hiccup was nervous. No matter how often Gobber and Stoick told him not to worry, he was still worrying. This was a big deal and for the first time in years, he felt uncomfortable being around his tribe. Snotlout had come to tease him earlier in the day, Fishlegs had come to encourage him, and Astrid had come to give him a kiss. They were together. Sort of. They argued a lot and they felt it damaged their ability to train at the academy. In the past five years, things had changed.
After a fight with some wild dragons, they started to allow others to pick and Hiccup and the others became teachers, as Gobber had been to them, to teach them how to use their dragons. Each of them had one class a year for the past three years.
The twins did most of their classes together, and their students were more deadly than Hiccup thought possible. At first, some of the younger Vikings were afraid to be with the twins, and that was because of what their parents told them. But Ruff and Tuff impressed Hiccup, their classes, especially together, where unstoppable. Their training crossed over three different areas, being able to fight on their own, with the dragon, and training their dragon. Their fighting had diminished, but was still there. And, even now, they still fought and dealt physical injury to one another. It was like a form of challenging each other and keeping them at their best.
Hiccup, Fishlegs, and Astrid had given up trying to understand how the twins could fight like they did.
The same could be said of Astrid’s team. They were often ruthless and had close bonds with their dragons. Everyone had their own specialties. Fishlegs was good at helping the new recruits understand their dragons and bond with them. He also could individualize his tactics to each of his students. It took him longer to train them, but his students always had the best understanding of their dragons. That made Hiccup happy.
Everyone wanted to have a Night Fury, but to this day, they still hadn’t found any more like Toothless.
Snotlout had a stubborn dragon and helped to teach his students how respect was something that was sometimes earned. It took years for Hookfang and Snotlout to work things out, and even now they had a rivalry and competed against one another’s pigheadedness.
Again, Hiccup didn’t understand it, as someone who was completely in sync with his dragon.
Oh well. As he mounted Toothless, he flew to the Mead Hall, where they would reveal him as a man and the party would start as the sun kissed the horizon.
“Ready bud?” He asked, half an hour later, as everyone in the tribe chanted his name, ready for him to walk out, a man, and heir of the tribe.
Toothless cooed in response and Hiccup walked out, waving at his people. Huh. It felt strange to say that. His people…
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Post by nyrax on Nov 2, 2013 22:24:48 GMT -5
A low humming came from Tuffnut’s throat as he busied his hands with all the hair that his sister had. He was focused on this task, something that people said he was too good at. Rather than being easily distracted, it seemed like he always focused on something too much and tuned everything else out. It was a habit that he was frequently yelled at for, though for the life of him he couldn’t figure out why. He had just learned to shrug off how strange everyone else in the village was, he would just tolerate them. Right now he was still heavily focused on making sure that his sister was getting her hair done the way that they had agreed upon. Tonight was a special night after all, even Tuffnut recognized that. After all it wasn’t every day that a new chief was picked, it wasn’t anything boring like eating or sleeping. This was a super special event, especially for Hiccup.
Of course, this only meant that everyone else had to work harder in order to impress the same people that they saw every day. Tuffnut sword that he would never understand his village sometimes. Who were they trying to impress after all? They all knew and saw each other every day, it wasn’t like Odin himself was coming down to hang out with them.
Man that’d be cool though…Odin was probably a hit at parties.
He continued working on the hair until Ruffnut moved to look at him. He did his best to not show his annoyance, but he hated it when she moved. Her hair was hard enough to work with as it was, and her moving certainly wasn’t making anything easier. What was a guy to do though? Woman just always seemed to do what they wanted. If anyone wanted to debate about that, he could always point out his secret weapon: Astrid.
As Ruffnut asked her question, he stopped for some time and thought about her question. Finally, he was forced to give a shrug before realizing she wasn’t looking at him anymore. “I don’t know, spose not” he remarked as he went back to braiding the hair. Their family was incredibly well known for having long hair. “It’s no one person’s fault that it happened. It just did. I try not to think about it,” he said simply. He didn’t really enjoy talking about this topic, they almost never did. He wanted to ask her why she brought it up, maybe it affected her more then she let on? He didn’t know, but he’d have to keep an eye on her tonight.
Much like Ruffnut, Tuffnut had been requested to wear his full battle fear. While riding the dragons for training they had always decided to go with comfort rather than protection. After all, what good was armor going to do if you fell a thousand feet from the sky? It’d only make you fall faster. It was one of the reasons that Tuffnut always told Snotlout that he should wear armor in to battle. Snotlout had yet to fall for this trick, but maybe one day he would.
Earlier in the day Tuffnut had also bathed and put on his full battle gear. His still looked brand new, as the years of peace in Berk hadn’t forced him to put it on yet. Still, he didn’t like wearing it for any reason. Course when he saw Ruffnut’s dress he felt better. He knew how much she hated things like this, so he tried to do his best to keep his complaining to a minimum. He looked like a warrior in his armor, but he felt like he was more than that now. He was a dragon rider, and one of the many teachers that Hiccup had helped create.
When Ruffnut spoke again, he allowed an audible laugh to escape his body as he pictured it. “Are you kidding? That’s priority number one as far as I’m concerned. I hope he picks the fight with me so I have an excuse to punch him” he said before giving his signature low laugh that they both shared whenever they were concocting the same plan. “Course if we got him and Hiccup to fight, that’d only make it all the better,” he insisted.
After finishing braiding Ruffnut’s hair, she went down to go see where Barfbelch was. Tuffnut stayed up, deciding to look himself over one last time to make sure that everything was in his place. While he detested stuff like this, he knew that he was supposed to do it. Hiccup was his friend after all, and the heir to the entire tribe. They’d be working together for a long time now, there was a bond that they had. It wasn’t quite the bond he had with his own sister, but a bond nonetheless. “There had better be a lot of booze” he mumbled before heading downstairs to see their dragon. He came down right at the time that Ruffnut appeared to want to feed them. He gave a nod as he came down, not having to say anything to show his compliance. They hardly ever had to speak to each other anymore, they just knew each other too well. It was the same as their connection with the dragon, they could just make the smallest of motions and get them to do anything they wanted. Hiccup had always been impressed by that skill, even if he spent hours explaining about how it was “wrong” to play pranks on their students through their silent communication.
Tuffnut loved messing with his students, it was only like his third favorite thing in the world.
When his sister pulled on the end of his helmet, he came along easily. After all, if they showed up late the chief would just yell at them like he so seemed to enjoy doing. Tuffnut always meant to ask Hiccup if yelling was actually part of the job or if that was an optional thing. Oddly enough, there never seemed to be a good time to ask that question.
Once they arrived at the Great Hall, the twins easily found themselves moving towards their fellow riding companions and observing everything around them. “Dang, I haven’t seen this much food since our dragons had that contest to see who could eat the most….man that was a good day” Tuff said with his laugh once again before he spaced out and pondered about that day. He shook it off a moment later once Ruff bumped him as she moved forward to head to their seat.
“Oh right, we need to be like ready and stuff,” Tuff muttered before following along. Everyone was dressed in their best, it seemed like they were just waiting on the man of the hour now. After taking his seat Tuff just leaned back and forth in his chair, wobbling it several times as he maintained his balance. He stared at the ceiling, after all he’d hear the door open once Hiccup arrived.
Tuff always seemed to forget how much he actually missed on a daily basis because he spaced out.
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Post by Fateful on Nov 2, 2013 22:50:53 GMT -5
Truthfully, the twins never actually talked about their mother's death before, not with each other and not with their father. When it happened, he told his children that she was gone and they went together to where they'd placed the urn that was supposed to symbolize her after they sprinkled her ashes. But, the twins had only ever used sign language to express their feelings about her, and that was years ago. It was also when they decided to start fighting and acting out more often. Ruffnut brought it up because she always thought of her mother. The twins looked like their mother. Their father was strong, tall, and muscular. He looked Stoick and the other Viking men. But the twins were thin, also tall, and lean. They were strong but didn't look it. They had their mother's build and eyes. Ruffnut looked more like her in her facial features, smooth complexion, a face full of freckles, and crystal blue eyes.
At being told that her brother had been thinking the same thing, a crooked grin came across her face. Oh, this was going to be good. She loved that they were on the same page constantly.
Ruffnut and Tuffnut started to wear armor just after the conflicts started. One of the other Vikings was caught in the chest with an arrow right beside them. Knowing full well it could have been them, they decided to protect themselves a little better in order to ensure that nothing would happen to them. In truth, they both feared losing the other, even if they'd never admit it. Ruffnut played off the fear by offering to sacrifice Tuffnut in a variety of ways.
That continued with their students. They enjoyed messing with them at times. They'd switch heads, confuse their students dragons, make them give opposing commands. Everything they did had a reason, sometimes their reasons varied from boredom to amusement, but more often it was constructive. A dragon that took commands from anyone was too tame, too comfortable with people. That worried the twins. If someone could command Barfbelch, then the dragon could be used as a weapon against them, and they were a deadly weapon. The dragon wouldn't even except food from others. The twins didn't train BarfBelch to do that, but after almost two years of being fed, at the same time, by the same person, they refused to take it from another. Not even their father could feed them. It even took a little coaxing to get Barf to accept food from Tuffnut and Belch to accept food from Ruffnut.
"So... does this mean we're going to be doing more watching then drinking or we're going to do equal partaking in both?" usually one of the twins drank less than the other as a means of protecting them. It was one of the benefits they had that the others didn't. As siblings they'd die to protect the other. So, having one of them in control allowed them to be two parts of a whole. They'd switched off enough to know their limits and when they needed to intervene if the other grew too rowdy.
A pause. "We should see if Fishlegs can get wasted." She added, as this was something they hadn't seen yet. "You think he falls back on his Beseker tendencies? I kinda think that Hiccup would be a wimp drunk... like, curled up in the corner crying because the room is spinning." Ruffnut got loud when drunk, and since she was already loud, it was a problem. Her discretion went out the window and it had been twice that she'd started to undress because she 'it was too hot to wear this much clothes.'
She watched Hiccup come out and cheered with the rest of the village. It was good so far. Astrid, Fishlegs, and Snotlout where beside them, cheering as well. Stoick made a speech, Hiccup said a few words and the dragons started to fire fire balls into the sky to celebrate the events of the evening. It didn't take long for Hiccup to come to meet his friends and as soon as he did, Snotlout forced a mug into his hands. "Come on birthday boy, time to drink up!"
Ruffnut glanced to her brother and grinned. "Hey! Come on!" She punched Snotlout. "This isn't just about Hiccup, it's about all of us. We should do a round of shots to celebrate!" She boasted.
"Actually, I don't think that's a good idea." Astrid commented, seeming nervous.
The she-twin glared. "You got me in a dress, you owe me at least a round of shots."
Astrid sighed, but eventually consented and helped convince Fishlegs. In the end, the original dragon trainers did a round of shots together to let the celebration get underway.
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Post by nyrax on Nov 2, 2013 23:11:03 GMT -5
As much as they didn’t admit it, the twins were fare more alike than they were different. It was just the way they were, after spending so much time with a person you begin to realize how much you have in common with them. For the twins this especially came out when it came to training their dragons and their students. Weapons were things that anyone could use, but Hiccup taught the twins long ago that they dragons were not weapons. They were companions, and they deserved respect. It was why they went about making sure that the dragons would only work with their specific students and no one else.
Of course there was that one day that two students accidentally switched dragons because the colors and types were almost the exact same. Oh man, had they got chewed out for that one! Still, Tuffnut just used that point to make his case. At least they weren’t changeable, it was a personal bond that the dragons were making. That was what Hiccup wanted after all right?
“Of course we’re going to be drinking,” Tuffnut insisted as they went to the party. “There’s no way that they’re going to get me to dress like this and not get a little wasted. You know how my head starts to hurt if I smell alcohol and don’t taste it. It’s like when we see Fishlegs fall and can’t help but laugh and trip him again the moment he gets back up.”
“You’re wearing the dress though, if you want to try to outdrink all the men here you should go for it,” Tuffnut said in a partially teasing fashion. He knew that his sister hated to wear stuff like this, so perhaps giving her an out to drink a ton would make her feel a little bit better. He was still worried about her after she had brought up their mom again. They hadn’t talked about her in years, why was tonight so different? Tuffnut didn’t know, but he didn’t know a lot of things and that was okay by him!
“OHHHHH that’s brilliant!” the brother said excitedly as he could already imagine what Fishlegs would be like drunk. “It’d be like April all over again! Remember when we made that pact to trip him at least three times a day no matter what? Oh man, that was a good month…we should do that year round” he added as he once again gained that look that said he was starting to space out.
Eventually they ran in to the others wearing all of their armor. “Hey Snoutlout, looking good in that armor man. You should really consider wearing that the next time we go in to battle” Tuffnut said with a smile as he glanced at his sister and the two of them shared a laugh.
“Yeah, I suppose I do look pretty awesome in it,” Snoutlout said as his usual arrogance came out as he knew the entire village was here. That included the ladies after all didn’t it? “Maybe I will wear it next time, why do you care anyway?”
“Oh no reason, no reason at all” Tuffnut said before giving his sister a fist bump when no one else was looking. She was the only one that knew why Tuffnut was so insistent on Snout wearing the armor.
Eventually the celebration started and the formalities were taken care of. They were getting down to the party part, the part that was going to last the whole night long! That was just the way Tuffnut liked it, a party that didn’t seem like it was going to end. He always loved stuff like this, and he never focused on his mother when parties like this came about. What good would come of it after all?
“Drinking doesn’t really seem like a good idea, I mean we should still be ready don’t you think?” Fishlegs said from his seat. “Just in case something-“
“Hey come on now man, you don’t wanna be that guy” Tuffnut began.
“What guy?” Fishlegs asked.
“You know…that guy, that guy that no one wants to be” he said before scratching his head in confusion. “I don’t remember what he did, but trust me when I say you don’t wanna be that guy!”
Once Astrid seemed to agree that they should share a drink, they all had their glasses filled up to the brim. “Heads down!” Tuffnut shouted as he lifted his glass up high.
“It’s bottoms up,” Snoutlout corrected him.
“You want me to drink this upside down? Okay but this seems like a bad idea” he said before actually starting to try to find a way to balance himself. It only took a moment for him to fall backwards and create a crashing sound.
“I’m okay…..”
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Post by Fateful on Nov 2, 2013 23:27:46 GMT -5
Ruffnut laughed. They discovered that whenever fishlegs fell, they could make the water ripple as if a dragon was thundering through the village. Needless to say, it was a long April and only ended when Fishlegs got so angry with the two of them he punched Tuffnut so hard he slammed into Ruffnut and the two of them fell. Tuffnut's shoulder was cut my the horns on Ruffnut's helmet and the she-twin was bruised by where her brother hit her and the rocks she fell on. They didn't apologize, but agreed to give Fishlegs his space for a while.
"Hey, maybe we could try again. Or, maybe we can come up with something else. Like pouring stout beer in his food and drinks for a while. We can get him used to it so when he drinks it, he'll drink a lot at once!"
The idea of Snotlout wearing his armor for flying was rather amusing. The twins learned they couldn't use it with BarfBelch because their dragon's necks were sensitive. The heavier they were, the harder it was for them to fight. Barf wouldn't let out as much gas as quickly as he could when Ruffnut was wearing armor and carrying heavy weapons. The same was true with Belch, he couldn't spark as fast or as accurately when Tuffnut had on heavy armor or a large mace.
Now, truth be told, Tuffnut had an excellent sense of balance. And he wouldn't have fallen over if Ruffnut hadn't helped him by pushing him. Just a little. She grinned at her brother as he fell and grabbed him another shot. "Here, dufus, let's try again." She didn't bother to help him up since she was holding two shots. Using alcohol to entice her brother to stand, she offered it to him and with that, the six riders toasted and downed their liquor.
It was stronger than what they were used to, a gift from the Routsi tribe, who traveled for nearly a week for the party. They had brought several of their strongest warriors and fair maidens. The chief was hoping to have one of his six daughters impress Hiccup in an effort to join their tribes. The dragon rider, now that was a more worthy son in law then any battle winner or axe thrower.
Ruffnut could see how nervous Astrid was about this, since a lot of the other chief's had the same intentions in mind. once they'd done their shots, she smiled at her friend to help her feel better about her worries.
It worked, Astrid had been glancing around at the other girls, determined to stand straighter, be more dignified and look more elegant than all of them. She didn't believe she could until Ruffnut smiled and gave her that encouragement and confirmation she needed.
Once he finished the shot, Hiccup looked ill for a moment. "This is horrible." he said, rubbing his mouth with his hand. "Ugh... can we not do that again?"
"I think we should do it with whatever the Danes tribe brought you. The Danes were the tribe that traveled the farthest. Almost a month. They were famous for their silks and various liquors. "Come on!" Ruffnut encouraged. She was in a dress and if she could find a way to get out of it before or by dawn, she was all for it.And, she wore extra clothes under it, just in case that did, eventually, happen.
This idea was supported by both twins who slammed their helmets together to show their agreement.
Hiccup sighed. It would be rude to refuse their gift. "I guess... the twins have a point. ONE more shot, then we get something to eat. Deal?" he bartered, knowing that the others would go along with it if he agreed. Since the twins had come so far along in their dragon training, he supposed he owed them this. He respected them both more than he had before and admired their connection to their dragon and how they got over their differences to train them.
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Post by nyrax on Nov 2, 2013 23:57:10 GMT -5
“Oh I love the way you think. We can keep doing it until he thinks that it tastes like normal water,” Tuffnut said excitedly though he tried his best to keep his voice down. “It’ll be like how I don’t get bothered by blood in my mouth due to all the times I landed on my head when I was a kid,” he said as if it was something to be proud of. That was what bloodlust was supposed to taste like right? He was always confused about that expression, but he sure as hell did his best to embrace it!
After spacing out once again he physically slapped himself to make himself focus on the moment at hand. The others gave him a look for a second but didn’t question it. In truth they had seen Tuffnut do this to himself long enough to know exactly why he had done it. Snoutlout just laughed, always finding it amusing when Tuffnut got hurt even if it was at his own hand. Tuffnut just laughed to himself slightly, also finding it amusing. In truth any sort of pain always reminded him of his sister. Since she was usually the one that had to beat sense in to him. Usually literally!
Tuffnut pushed himself up to his feet as the smell of alcohol compelled him like a nut for a squirrel. That was an obsessing that he understood, he always liked taking the nuts and smashing them against his own head in order to make them crack. It didn’t feel as good as a rock to his face, but it was a nice replacement when he was hungry. “Man I could really use some nuts to go with this,” Tuffnut said as he accepted the drink that was placed before him. It didn’t take him long to get his orientation back and quickly raise his glass along with the others.
After downing another glass, Tuffnut’s food tapped against the floor repeatedly. “WOO! Now that is a drink!” he shouted before throwing the glass on to the ground and having it smash against the floor.
“Tuffnut, we’re not supposed to break our glasses until the end of the feast, to make sure that people don’t step on the shards remember?” Fishlegs chimed in as he looked down at the damage that Tuffnut had caused.
“Oh….well you guys really should have said something before I did that,” Tuffnut said in his defense.
“We figured it was kinda obvious considering how quickly we’d run out of glasses” Snoutlout chimed in as he enjoyed making Tuffnut look like even more of a fool than he already was.
“Hey if you smashed glasses anywhere near as much as I did maybe you’d realize how much fun it is! What kind of a Viking doesn’t like breaking things? Idiot” Tuffnut once again said as he crossed his arms with a happy smile. He felt pretty happy with that comeback, even if no one else really got it.
Eventually he was given another glass and they continued about their business. Thankfully if Tuffnut was good for anything, it was a good laugh.
“Yeah come on man, do you know how long it takes to get anywhere in a month…it takes like a month man,” Tuffnut said with another laugh as he was already getting ready to down another drink with his sister. “You wouldn’t want to piss off those guys, especially considering that I hear they’re really good at throwing spears at long distances.”
“As much as I hate to say it, but they might be right Hiccup” Fishlegs chimed in. “I mean this is the ceremony where you become a man. The last thing that you want to do is show weakness”
After they agreed to have one more glass, they all downed in and slammed their glasses down. “Do we get to break the glasses now, or will someone else be upset?” Tuffnut said while putting a large emphasis on the sarcasm in his speech. “Whatever, I really just want to find a bowl of nuts and dig in. I could use something salty right now” he said before standing up and starting to head towards the table with all the food
This was a gigantic celebration, there had to be something here that he would like.
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Post by Fateful on Nov 3, 2013 0:16:20 GMT -5
Ruffnt smirked. Tuffnut had always been a baby when they were kids. He sniffled and his eyes watered whenever he got hurt. It was then that she started pushing him down and hitting him so he'd stop being such a baby. Sometimes he'd get up and push her back, pull her hair, make fun of her playing with dolls. They were somewhat crude to one another as children, but they did it lovingly. Vikings were taught from a very young age that affection and love were signs of weakness so violence, which their parents encouraged was how they learned to show affection.
"I don't know why you always want something salty to go with your liquor..." Ruffnut cornered her brother. "It tastes so bad with it." She preferred something sweet whenever she drank, sugar, chocolate, or something that would dance along her partially numb taste buds. This was one of the places that the twins were opposite.
As they did their shots, Ruffnut broke her shot glass on the back of Snotlout's helmet when he criticized her brother. "Hey!" She said to the Monsterous nightmare's rider. "That's not totally true. I remember we had a party like this when we were young, like, really young and there was broken glass everywhere." Her and Tuffnut had thrown it at one another and she got some stuck in her thigh when she'd fallen on it. Their mother had yelled at the two of them for being so reckless.
Damn it. WHy were all her thoughts about her mother all of a sudden? It was starting to annoy her and her facial expression changed from a pout.
After their final shot, Stoick came over and asked Hiccup to come with him. Hiccup excused himself and went to go talk to the other chiefs and meet their sons and daughters. All the chiefs and their children were at a large table. Hiccup had to entertain them and speak for a while. They had agreed on peace and these eight tribes were linked together. If one went to war, they all went to war. This was as much about Hiccup's manhood as it was about diplomacy and negotiation. They needed allies, now more than ever.
The vast celebration continued and Ruffnut thought that since Snotlout was with Tuffnut, she should stay with Astrid to keep her from killing any women around hiccup. Truth be told, Ruffnut had no idea why Astrid was so jealous. Hiccup was an idiot about other women. He only ever had eyes for Astrid and it was so obvious how much he loved and respected her.
Whenever they did training missions, Hiccup always paired himself with Astrid. It was Ruffnut that finally called him out on it, saying that they were the best trainers because they were always together while Hiccup left the twins with Snotlout. It kept them back and weakened them. They should pair a warrior with a dragon expert. THAT would be far more effective. And, Hiccup agreed. So they started rotating. Hiccup and Fishlegs were the dragon experts. Ruffnut, Snotlout, and Tuffnut were warriors. Astrid was a balance of both. So, the twins were rarely paired together, which helped their constant fighting. They eventually found that Hiccup and Snotlout, Fishlegs and Ruffnut, and Astrid and Tuffnut made rather good teams, and, with time, they became as powerful without their dragons as they were with them. Ruffnut and Fishlegs were particularly dangerous together, since Ruffnut had no fear and Fishlegs knew everything. With Fishlegs coaching her, Ruffnut's fearlessness let her get close to any dragon. She helped Fishlegs' cowardice and gave him more confidence in himself. It was quite a balanced partnership.
Speaking of, Fishlegs lingered with the girls, seated across from them, eating at one of the large tables.
"Come on, Astrid." Ruffnut encouraged, watching Astrid glare at a girl who was currently talking to Hiccup. "You worry way too much. Just, have some fun and lighten up. You know he's just being polite." It wasn't like Ruffnut to give speeches or try to pick people up and she was about to punch Astrid because she wasn't going to do it much longer. Turning, she looked to Fishlegs for help. He was good at this sort of thing and she wasn't. She solved her problems through violence, not words.
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Post by nyrax on Nov 3, 2013 0:33:51 GMT -5
The thing about family was that you always saw each other at their best, and also at their worst. It helped to grow a bond of friendship. Siblings were so close because they were raised in similar settings, but the things they had to deal with and experience were different. Despite how similar Tuffnut and Ruffnut were, they were in fact two completely different people. It always seemed like they were grouped together, but that didn’t mean that they were the exact same. Their bond had become strong through an entire lifetime of being with each other, not from anything that they were born with.
While Tuffnut didn’t acknowledge the help that his sister gave him by having her smash her own glass on Snoutlout’s helmet, he gained a small smile that he made sure was gone when the others looked back towards him. Instead he had that same grin on his face that he always seemed to have. That stupid grin that only Ruffnut could really read. She was the only one in the village that could tell when he was fake smiling. It was pretty rare, but she had learned to see it.
He remembered once when they were younger Tuffnut hadn’t always been as blissfully happy as he was now. He hadn’t done well with his training, and he had acted like it hadn’t bothered him. Their parents couldn’t tell that he had been upset, but his sister did. She talked to him that night and made sure she was okay. It was the first time he had realized how much she actually paid attention to him. He had never forgotten it, and it was one of those moments that continued to strengthen the bond that they shared.
“I guess our house just knows how to party harder than the rest of you sisses!” Tuffnut said with a laugh though he only addressed Snoutlout when he was speaking. “We aren’t afraid of getting cut or severely injured, and those are like two out of the ten traits that make a good Viking!” the male twin said before sharing another laugh with his sister. She always understood him, and he made sure to always try his best to understand her. He had always struggled with it, but thankfully their similarities were close enough to the point where they got along extremely easy. They knew they had each other’s backs, which was what family did.
While Tuffnut was away from the table, Snoutlout decided to go and grab some food for himself. He was making particularly sure to grab more food than Tuffnut. This led to both men having a considerable amount of food on their plate, to the point where it looked like a single misstep would cause the food to spill all over the floor. Tuffnut had a much easier time walking back to the table then Snoutlout did.
Fishlegs continued to eat some of the food that he had grabbed previously. He ate in silence for the most part, not really having much to contribute to the conversation. He wanted to talk about the dragons, but this wasn’t the place to do it. Tonight was about Hiccup, and he wanted to do his best to be a supportive friend to him. Fishlegs always just felt more comfortable talking about dragons, it was where he excelled after all. His lack of warrior skills was always made up with his immense knowledge of the dragons, which was only rivaled by Hiccup himself.
As Ruffnut looked towards him Fishlegs quickly swallowed the food that he had in his mouth. “Come on you know Hiccup. He’s just a good guy, he’s always been nice and polite. Even when he was the worst of us when it came to being a warrior, he was always just a good guy,” Fishlegs tried to say to give Astrid a bit of encouragement. It wasn’t like her to be down in the dumps, and when she was it just made everyone else nervous. Astrid never doubted herself or her own abilities after all. To see it was just…..odd. “Anyway I’m sure you have nothing to worry about.”
“Oh man!” Tuffnut said as he sat at the table with his plate. “Man I haven’t seen this many cute girls in one place and they are all chatting it up with Hiccup. That guy knows how to talk,” he said before smashing a nut against his head. He stopped when he saw the looks that everyone was giving him. “What did I say something rude?”
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Post by Fateful on Nov 3, 2013 0:46:30 GMT -5
The twins had always had their differences. They fought a lot, but they got along well enough. It was usually when they were alone that they didn't fight. They'd put their defenses down. For the first seven years of their life, they shared a bed until their father decided they were getting too old and separated them. He'd tried to give them different rooms, but it didn't go well. They'd lay awake for hours, unable to sleep. So, after two days, their father let them share a bedroom. They still shared a room to this day, despite their age. The others, although they'd never admit it, thought it was strange since they were of the opposite gender. But, it wasn't really something they talked about.
The others only knew because Astrid had told them after having a rather private girl talk that Tuffnut walked in on. Admittedly, he didn't hear anything, since he wasn't stupid, but after Astrid hit him, he stood up for himself by saying it was his room too. This baffled Astrid and still did to this day. Why would the twins, both 18, share a room?
She put it out of her mind then. Now, sitting at the table, barely touching her chicken, she sighed. "Look... I'm Fine, okay guys? I appreciate what you're trying to do, but Hiccup..." she trailed off, "well, he flirts."
Ruffnut kicked her brother under the table. He was not helping what she was trying to accomplish right now!
"Okay, I'm done." Ruffnut stood up from the table and walked off. She came back with two rather large mugs and gave one to Astrid. "Drink." She commanded, drinking her own. "Hiccup doesn't flirt, you idiot, that's just how he is." She pointed to Snotlout. "See him? HE flirts. Hiccup is just polite. He's that kind of nice guy that everyone hates because he's instrincitly good, whimpy, and all that corney, cheesy shit. Now, you're going to drink this and stop being such a dunderhead, or I'm going to punch you and we're going to brawl, you got it?"
Astrid sighed. "Snotlout would like a brawl too much." She took a drink from the mug. "Fine. No more moping." She then punched Tuffnut in the shoulder for his comment. It didn't help and made her more nervous.
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Post by nyrax on Nov 3, 2013 0:58:46 GMT -5
“OW!” Tuffnut yelled as he felt the kick completely make contact with his leg. “My thigh!” he said before a realization came to him. “I had been trying to remember what that was called for the longest time! Thanks sis” he said before seeming to completely forget about the pain that had been shooting up to his brain. Perhaps the endurance training that Ruffnut was giving to her brother was actually starting to pay off, or was his brain just having trouble picking up the pain spikes due to all the alcohol? Both were completely possible, and everyone knew that.
Snoutloud had always known that he wasn’t exactly everyone’s favorite person, but he knew when it was time to play nice and be there for a friend. Despite Astrid rejecting his advances several times, he still considered her a friend and rolemodel. He felt that out of everyone she was the one that he understood the most, and he hoped that she understood him…to an extent at least. Once Ruffnut was done talking, he turned towars Astrid. “She’s completely right you know,” he finally said. “They’re all right. Hiccup is just a good guy. He doesn’t flirt, he’s just being polite. The girls may be flirting with him, but we ALL know that he only has eyes for you. We knew it well before you two were willing to admit it.”
“For once the guy has a point,” Tuffnut chimed in before ripping off a particularly large piece of meat from his plate and starting to chew it. “I mean, it’s like you two were just made for each other ya know?” he questioned with a full mouth before giving a particularly powerful swallow and giving a nice sigh of satisfaction. That was some good meat.
“Just don’t worry about it. I promise you that you have nothing to worry about. We’d all hold Hiccup down while you beat him if he tried anything like that” Fishlegs finally chimed in. He gave a weak thumbs up in Astrid’s direction.
“Yeah what he sai-OW” Tuffnut said as Astrid punched him in the shoulder. “Odin’s beard! What is this you’re all hitting me like it’s my birthday or something!”
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Post by Fateful on Nov 3, 2013 1:07:09 GMT -5
Ruffnut rolled her eyes. Odin's beard, she loved her brother, but sometimes he was such an idiot. Honestly, it was something she loved about him. When they were kids, the first time they ever got in trouble was when they were six. They ran outside during a dragon raid and Ruffnut was burned by some Gronkle lava. Their father yelled at Ruffnut, chastising him for letting his sister get hurt. He hadn't been protecting her. That was his job. Ruffnut thought it wasn't fair. Just because she was a girl, she didn't need protecting.
Not long after, however, Tuffnut had hurt himself playing with their father's ax and their father yelled at Ruffnut for not watching and taking care of her brother, despite the fact he was older. They had always been a package deal, and the opposite had the obligation to take care of the other. They'd taken that seriously all their lives, especially since Ruffnut was good with medicines and herbs that helped the two of them whenever they burned, maimed, or injured themselves doing... well pretty much doing what they did.
Astrid was beaming by the end. "Oh... you guys!" She said, hugging Ruffnut, who tolerated the contact. Then fishlegs, and yes, even Snotlout. She didn't bother to hug Tuffnut. "I'll hug you on your birthday, deal?" She almost teased, a smile on her pink lips. "Okay guys, what do you say we finish up our little feast and then have a little fun? Stoick asked us to give a demonstration to one of the other tribes with our dragons. And, it would be polite to do that, since dinner is almost over."
Ruffnut glanced to her brother. "We think our students should be presenting, and they're ready too. Tuffnut and I decided to sit this out. Whereas we are some of the best, I don't think it should be our job to show the others. That's what we're training the younger generation to do. So, our class has their own presentation." The twins had five students each, so the two of them controlled ten pupils from ages 14 to 16. They were all close to the two of them and it was more that the twins each had ten rather than them each being responsible for five.
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Post by nyrax on Nov 3, 2013 1:16:07 GMT -5
Tuffnut was fine with accepting responsibility for his sister. He hadn’t understood it when he was young, but he had grown up and seen what his father had been trying to teach them. After their mother died he really started trying to make sure that Ruffnut was fine. She didn’t need much protecting, but it had been one of the reasons that they hung out all the time when they were younger. Without a mom Tuffnut just felt like he really didn’t want to disappoint his father again. All they had was each other now, there was no telling when anything might happen to any of them.
Pushing his mind away from that, he was grateful for the comment to be thrown at him from Astrid. “Oh okay cool….wait are you going to do what you did last year and hug me to the point where my bones start cracking…..cause that was SO much fun last year!” he said with another laugh as he thought back to that time when they had all spent time with the dragons to celebrate their birthdays. The dragons were basically family now, none of them could deny that.
At the mention of a showing Tuffnut agreed with his sister. “Yeah, as cool as it is to show off all the time we’ll sit this one out,” he said before leaning back in his chair. “Our students will show off how far they’ve come. I remember back to when I was a loser with my dragon” he said with a laugh before Ruffnut once again kicked the leg out from under his chair and caused him to fall to the ground. He was down there for a second before popping up. “HEY! Found a piece of silver! Lucky day” he said before tucking it in to his pocket and sitting back down like nothing ever happened.
“Well I guess they made their decision, the rest of us should get going if we’re going to get ready,” Snoutlout said before turning and heading off towards the area where the dragons would be waiting for them.
It wouldn’t be long before Ruffnut would hear a low laugh coming from Tuffnut. “Snoutlout’s wearing his armor. If you’re up there Thor, now would be a great time to have a storm come out,” he said before continuing his laugh and turning his attention back to his plate.
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Post by Fateful on Nov 3, 2013 1:30:59 GMT -5
Astrid didn't agree with the twins, but she knew there was nothign they could do now. The other tribesmen would want to see what their best could do, not their trainees! Ugh, they would hear it from Stoick for this. They would definitely get an earful later. And so would Hiccup since he got blamed whenever the twins did something with dragons. Oh well... She went outside with Stormfly and got ready with the other trainers. She did notice the twins students and how they were lined up and ready, and she was almost surprised.
Ruffnut handed Astrid's barely touched drink to Tuffnut and the two of them finished the mugs together. To be honest, she got it mostly for her brother since she knew Astrid wouldn't have much before going to preform her duties. After they finished, she kicked out her brother's chair. Once they were standing, Ruffnut turned to her brother. Whereas they weren't showing off, she wanted to at least watch them so she knew who to make run laps around the village carrying baby Gronkles. "Come on." She spit in her hand and shook her brothers hand, their normal way of agreeing or making a truce. IN this case, they seemed to come to the same, strange agreement of torturing their students.
The twins went outside as the chief's gathered to watch the dragons. BarfBelch weren't far behind their riders and greeted them as soon as they saw them. The hideous Zippleback has the best vision of all the dragons, with the exception of the Night Fury. However, one had to consider that they had four eyes, rather than two and could literally see 360 degrees, even if it was in two different brains. "Hopefully he'll just fall..." Ruffnut added, seeing him saddling up. "And since he's so heavy he'll hit the water before Hookfang can catch him."
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Post by nyrax on Nov 3, 2013 1:42:26 GMT -5
“Thank ya kindly! To the two coolest riders in Berk! Long may our awesomeness be….awesome” Tuffnut said happily before having his glass hit his sister’s and immediately downing it. It was at this time that she decided it would be appropriate to kick his chair out. “AH!” he shouted and she would hear the smashing of his glass. “Well I guess the drinking’s over for now,” he said before pulling himself up. He pulled a single piece of glass out of his hand but it had barely made a cut. He shook his hand for a moment as if this helped get rid of the pain that he was feeling. Ruffnut’s training was clearly working, as normally such a wound would bother him for weeks.
The shake was made and Tuffnut smiled, actually greatly looking forward to seeing how their students did. While he enjoyed tormenting them, he also couldn’t help but be happy when they succeeded. It was like seeing your favorite hunting animal fight for its life. You wanted to catch it, but something about a good fight always made the twins beyond happy. They went outside and got ready to observe what was about to happen. It was going to be interesting, Tuffnut realized that it was very rare that they just got to watch the dragons do their thing. Normally they were the ones in the air performing everything. It was going to be exciting to see it all from down here. They’d be like ants looking up at birds!
Wait, didn’t birds eat ants? Why would he wanna see them from that perspective?
Tuffnut pushed his thoughts away from that after a minute. “You know, this party was better than I thought it would be,” he admitted as he kept looking towards the sky for the show. “All and all, I’d say a good day”
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Post by Fateful on Nov 3, 2013 1:51:53 GMT -5
Ruffnut nodded in agreement with her brother. "I think so too." She watched their students preform and somehow felt that some of them held back to not embarrass the others. It made sense, but she kinda wanted one of them to show up the others. Like by pushing Snotlout off his dragon into the sea or something. It was lucky that Hookfang had grown more protective of Snotlout, because the twins really did like to torture him.Well, the liked to torture everyone, but him especially.
Ah, the memories. As the parade ended, the sun set completely. Following that, all the dragons were still in the air. All of them sent fireballs out in every direction, lighting up towers that shone light all over the village so they could safely move about and party during the night. Everyone started cheering after this and Ruffnut found herself joining it. They had never gotten to watch something like this and it was a very different experience from the ground. It was amazing to watch from the skies the reactions of their village, but it was quite another thing to be down there with them, smelling the ale, laughing with them, cheering, and being pushed around in the crowds of excited vikings from eight different tribes. The exhilaration was something Ruffnut hadn't ever experienced before now.
She glanced to her brother as Toothless called, flying up into the air. Hiccup had finally been released from his meeting and their students were back on the ground, being congratulated and high-fived by the others students. They both had the same thought and mounted their dragon, flying up to meet up with the others in the sky, brightened by the full moon.
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